solidarity sabotage against the war industry
High-voltage cables set on fire: ultra-left suspected
Le Dauphiné, June 27, 2024
A new electrical sabotage attack took place overnight in the Grenoble area on Monday night, as Le Dauphiné Libéré learned from corroborating sources on Wednesday morning: in the commune of Noyarey, 20,000 volt electrical cables were set on fire along the RD 1532, the incident apparently only being discovered late on Tuesday afternoon. During the night of June 12-13, two 20,000-volt power transformers were set on fire on avenue du Grand Sablons in La Tronche and avenue de l’Europe in Grenoble, leaving 2,000 homes and businesses without power.
In Noyarey, the perpetrators of this latest attack targeted easily accessible cables that cross a small stream, the Ruisset (or Gélinot stream), at the level of a small bridge over the RD 1532. The fire caused extensive damage to these cables, but it seems that there were no major power cuts in the neighborhood, either to homes or to neighboring businesses, which would explain why the fire was only discovered on Tuesday afternoon.
Back to Lynred
According to our information, the act of sabotage is unmistakable, all the more so as a few meters from the damaged cables, inscriptions were discovered on a Metropole sign welcoming visitors to the Actipole business park. Beneath the word Lynred, crossed out with a cross, are the words “Palestine Kanaky libre”. While the defense of Palestine and Kanakie (“Kanaky” being the name given to New Caledonia by independence fighters) are causes usually championed by many left-wing and far-left organizations, Lynred refers to a company headquartered some 1.5 kilometers north of the small bridge over the RD 1532, in the commune of Veurey-Voroize.
Power supply
In March 2022, this company supplying electronic components – the European specialist in infrared detectors – had been pinpointed by the online media Disclose, which had revealed that France had continued to deliver very high-level military technologies to Russia between 2015 and 2020. Among the beneficiaries of these contracts was Lynred, a company supported by public funds. Contacted by Le Dauphiné Libéré, the company had indicated that “no new contracts have been signed with Russia since the 2014 embargo. When it comes to exports, Lynred complies strictly with the rules of the Ministry of Defense”.
It is likely that the perpetrators of the sabotage, who were aware of the easy access to this 20,000-volt line protected by thick tubing, thus attempted to harm Lynred by attacking its power supply. However, as of Wednesday, there was no information to suggest that the company had been affected by a supply disruption.
Attacks taken very seriously
Gendarmerie investigators are sure to draw parallels with the April 2022 attacks in the Grésivaudan region. Two years ago, a series of sabotage attacks on electrical installations attributed to libertarian groups targeted an RTE substation in Froges, power lines under the Brignoud bridge that crosses the Isère between Villard-Bonnot and Crolles, and an Enedis high-voltage substation in Meylan. The major high-tech companies in the Crolles basin and Inovallée, one of the Grenoble region’s main technology parks, seemed to be the activists’ main targets.
It is likely that this new case will join the judicial investigation opened in Grenoble into these and other previous actions, which have never been cleared up. According to our information, at a time of great political instability, these attacks are being taken very seriously by the authorities and intelligence services, who fear a multiplication of actions of this type over the coming weeks and months.
Attacking power lines: a direct action classic
Le Dauphiné, June 27, 2024
Over the past seven years, attacks on electrical infrastructure attributed to the ultraleft, and more specifically to the libertarian current, have multiplied in the Grenoble region. The fires at electrical transformers on the night of June 12-13, 2024 in La Tronche and Grenoble had caused significant damage to many residents and businesses. What’s more, the fire on the Brignoud bridge in April 2022 had far-reaching repercussions: in seeking to deprive STMicroelectronics and Soitec of electricity, the saboteurs had in fact also set fire to the bridge! The tens of thousands of people using the bridge over the Isère river were forced to make a considerable detour twice a day until it was reopened to vehicles in December 2022.
Also in April 2022, an RTE substation in Froges (supplying STMicroelectronics) was set on fire, as was an Enedis high-voltage substation in Meylan, supplying Inovallée, the Grenoble region’s main technology park. We also recall the arson attack on an Enedis garage in Seyssinet-Pariset in January 2020: a dozen heavy vehicles and a shed on Avenue de la République were destroyed by the flames, the action being claimed by an ultra-left group on a platform close to anarchist and anti-capitalist circles.
Violence claimed as legitimate
The main reason why electricity infrastructures are so often attacked by anarchists is that these direct actions enable targeted companies to be reached indirectly, as a direct attack is probably considered too risky or impossible due to the protection and security arrangements put in place by these companies. Although the case of Lynred differs somewhat from other ultra-left targets in that the company was more specifically suspected of continuing to supply equipment to Russia after the invasion of Crimea in 2014, the common ideological underpinning to these actions is the fight against advanced technologies, seen as tools of enslavement.
From the first battles waged in the 2000s against the construction of Minatec (an acronym for Micro and Nanotechnologies) in Grenoble, to sabotage aimed at cutting off STMicroelectronics’ power supply, to the fire at the Casemate Centre de Culture Scientifique, Technique et Industrielle (CCSTI) in 2017 and repeated attacks on Enedis facilities and equipment, the technological embodiments of a society perceived as overwhelming are thus targeted.
It’s a form of violence which, as the perpetrators of these attacks put their claims online, is generally justified by the conviction that this violence is merely a response to the more pernicious and, in their eyes, omnipresent violence to which society subjects them: inequality, capitalism, the dictatorship of work and technology, sexism, submission to the elites produced by democracy and corporations.
via: sansnom. Translated by Act for freedom now!